Guaranteed analysis:
Crude Protein not less than 23.00%
Crude Fat not less than 13.00%
Crude Fiber not more than 5.00%
Moisture not more than 10.00%
Vitamin E not less than 140 IU/kg
Omega-6 Fatty Acids not less than 2.0%*
Omega-3 Fatty Acids not less than 0.4%*

Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: Not Indicated
| Rating: 0

Pros:

Second and third ingredients are named meat products.

Cons:

Inadequate meat content, low quality grain making up the bulk of the food, fat of unidentifiable origin, controversial filler. Preservative not disclosed.

The first ingredient in this food is maize (corn). Corn is a low quality grain for dog food that has low digestibility and that is commonly assocciated with allergy problems and yeast infections. Moreover, food for canines should be based on meat - not on grain products, yet it would appear that this ingredient makes up the vast bulk of the food.

The second ingredient is catfish. Since this ingredient will end up weighing around 20% of its wet weight once the moisture is removed, as it must be to create a dry food, it is unlikely that this is the true first ingredient in the food but would be more accurately placed further down the ingredient list.

A second meat product, herring, in meal form is the third ingredient. This comprises less than 14% of the total ingredients and does little to add to increase the overall meat content to an acceptable level. We do not find any information about the presence or otherwise of ethoxyquin in the ingredient (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative commonly added to fish ingredients and that is banned from human foods due to the belief that it is carcinogenic).

Beet pulp is a low quality ingredient and filler. It is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required.

Animal fat is a low quality ingredient of unidentified origin for which it is impossible to determine source or quality. Unidentified ingredients are usually very low quality. AAFCO define this as "obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative".

Fish digest is material from fish which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed tissue. This is another low quality ingredient. We appreciate the use of whole eggs rather than egg product in the food.

Missing from the ingredient information is the form of preservative used in this food. Were chemical rather than naturally-occuring preservatives to be used, this food would receive a 1-star rating. The manufacturer has been given the benefit of the doubt and a 2-star rating given to the product.